New (Fiscal) Year Blues
What does July 1st mean to you? Well, since it’s the start of the new fiscal year for the government, and North Carolina has cut billions of dollars from the budget, it means you get less government services. Yay! Among the thousands of cuts to vital government services that you will not see directly because …
All Together
Over the weekend, the New York State legislature approved a bill giving same-sex New Yorkers the right to marry. Bravo. Marriage equality is slowly, slowly, making its way down the east coast. As a former bridge and tunnel New Yorker (read: native of New Jersey), I watched in amazement as this bill was shepherded through …
Educational Misconduct
Buried in the fog of budget negations and all-day legislative sessions, there was some significant educational news last week. Of course, the biggest news of the week was the huge cut to educational funding for the North Carolina public schools made law by the override of Governor Perdue’s budget veto. As a result of the …
Kinda. Sorta.
Downtown Raleigh is just getting back to its normal pace of life this morning, with all of our distinguished representatives of the General Assembly finally back in their respective districts. Let them cause trouble at home for a change. The General Assembly finished up their work this Saturday. Well, sort of – they will be …
Maths
We hate it. You hate it. And as it turns out, pretty much everyone hates it. What are we talking about? Why, the state budget, of course! But how unpopular is it? Really, really unpopular. Less than 25% of respondents approve of the budget state-wide. When asked about particulars about the budget, most disapproved of …
Understimulated
With all of the political drama last week both local and national, you would be forgiven if you missed an important milestone in national tax policy: the 10 year anniversary of the Bush Tax Cuts. While we could just tell you that they have been an unmitigated disaster*, it’s really more fun if we show …
Mom’s need help too
Think Medicaid is only for other people? Think again. As they say, everyone has a mother, and lots of mothers in North Carolina depend on Medicaid throughout their lives. Because the majority of North Carolina’s Medicaid dollars fund services for elderly individuals and those with disabilities − the majority of whom are women −Medicaid budget …
Budget Breakdown
Tired of hearing about the budget but having no idea what the details are? Never fear! Here is a breakdown by category of the major changes. Or in other words, it’s a breakdown before you breakdown. (Yes, we know it’s a bad pun – it’s been a long few weeks.) The monetary figures reflect increases …
Disastrous
The phrase “robbing Peter to pay Paul” comes to mind when looking through the latest budget attempts by the Senate. In only a few short days, the Senate as moved this piece of legislation at lightening speed, and we’re only now really catching up with the details. To call the current budget “compromise” anything but …
Que Pasa?
For those of you who remember the most basic of US history, you will remember that we are a nation of immigrants. That is one reason that it is always so shocking to see such blatantly bigoted legislation pushed in the GA against those more recent immigrants. There are over 30 anti-immigrant bills in the …